R-44 Down off Long Island, NY
Robinson helicopters fall out of the sky even with experienced instructors on board. Not necessarily inexperienced pilots through their inexperience pranging them. At least in a Bell light you've got an extra second or 2 on your side to react to sudden engine silence without the rotor stalling.
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: USA
Posts: 850
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Last edited by aa777888; 21st Jul 2017 at 14:58.
Robinson helicopters fall out of the sky even with experienced instructors on board. Not necessarily inexperienced pilots through their inexperience pranging them. At least in a Bell light you've got an extra second or 2 on your side to react to sudden engine silence without the rotor stalling.
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: USA
Posts: 850
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
For those whose only hope of affording the mission, or flying at all, is a Robinson, they have a place, or at least some 10,000 units sold (R22 and R44) say they do, or at least say a large number of pilots and owners think whatever the risks or performance limitations are, they are worth it.
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: England & Scotland
Age: 63
Posts: 1,413
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
No idea what happened in this case, no inside knowledge.
BUT
If you are flying along in an R44 and you get a sudden "bang" - big sound, like someone dropped a bag of tools onto the rear floor - then PLEASE suspect the sprag-clutch. Failure can lead to continued power, but no free-wheeling for split / autorotation, or to a complete loss of drive. The latter is easy to detect, as you auto down. The former is less easy (sometimes there is a partial failure and you can still split engine / rotor; but perhaps not for much longer as failure will continue to one of the two alternatives).
If you suspect the sprag-clutch then you can't check without disassembly, which I think is a distributor action rather than every maintenance provider.
I have seen it, and the disassembled unit is not pretty
BUT
If you are flying along in an R44 and you get a sudden "bang" - big sound, like someone dropped a bag of tools onto the rear floor - then PLEASE suspect the sprag-clutch. Failure can lead to continued power, but no free-wheeling for split / autorotation, or to a complete loss of drive. The latter is easy to detect, as you auto down. The former is less easy (sometimes there is a partial failure and you can still split engine / rotor; but perhaps not for much longer as failure will continue to one of the two alternatives).
If you suspect the sprag-clutch then you can't check without disassembly, which I think is a distributor action rather than every maintenance provider.
I have seen it, and the disassembled unit is not pretty
Better red than ...
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Appleby-in-Westmorland Cumbria England
Posts: 1,412
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
....look exactly the same as the permanent ones....
The fixed floats are there in flight. The (Robinson or Dart) floats are in packs on the skids till deployed. Assuming they deploy..